Catheters are widely used in medical procedures for bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, gastroscopy, cardiac procedures, and the like. Many of these catheters have lumens which are used for infusions, or for removing ablated material, and as a consequence are subject to the flow of biological materials therethrough. Some of the catheters are disposable, as, for example, in the case of catheters for balloon angioplasty, while others, such as catheters such as endoscopes which include optical viewing devices, may be too expensive to discard after each use. In the case of such non-disposable catheters, the problem of cleaning and sterilizing the instrument in readiness for the next use must be confronted.
With the increase in the number of infectious diseases which are resistant to antibiotics, or not amenable to treatment for other reasons, it is very important to assure cleanliness of reusable catheters. The procedures for cleaning the lumens of catheters is rendered difficult by the small diameters of the lumens, and their considerable lengths. Lumens for endoscopes, for example, may range in diameter from about 2.0 to about 3.2 millimeters (mm), or even 3.7 mm, and the length of a lumen may be as great as 110 centimeters (cm), corresponding to ratios of length-to-diameter of as much as about 35:1. In addition, the lumens may be curved, which exacerbates the cleaning problem.
Improved lumen cleaning arrangements are desired.